Dear John,

I continue to be amazed and inspired by the families of Uvalde, and I am once again reminded by them of the work we still have in front of us.

Yesterday parents and siblings of those we lost in the Robb Elementary shooting — who have already marched on the Capitol in Austin, rallied for reform in the plaza at Uvalde, traveled five hours by bus to confront Greg Abbott at the Edinburg debate — appeared at a Congressional hearing on gun violence.

Faith Mata, a senior at Texas State who lost her sister Tess nearly seven months ago, testified in front of those members of Congress who have the power to change our gun laws.

She described to them what it was like to get the initial call from her mom on May 24th, the panic of knowing there had been a shooting at her sister’s school but not knowing yet whether her sister had been shot. The frantic phone calls, the searching for answers outside of Robb Elementary and then the waiting for hours at the Civic Center with other parents and families, all of them hoping their kids were still alive. By the end of that night 21 families, including Faith’s, would learn that they had lost a loved one.

She told the committee what it was like to help plan her little sister’s funeral, to take on the tasks her grieving parents were unable to do. She told them about the darkness that had descended on her family “because our light has left.”

And all she’s asking for is that Congress raise the age to buy an AR-15 from 18 to 21.

If Congress, or the Texas Legislature, had acted on this idea earlier, her sister might still be alive. The Uvalde shooter patiently waited until he turned 18-years old, after which he bought two AR-15s along with 1,600 rounds of ammunition.

As State Senator Roland Gutierrez said to reporters in a break during the hearing yesterday:

“The fact is in Texas you got to be 21 to buy a handgun, 21 to buy a beer, 21 to buy a pack of cigarettes, but you can be 18 and buy an AR-15, and that’s what happened here because this governor allowed it… It’s time for change, not just in Texas but throughout this country.” (https://www.texastribune.org/2022/12/15/roland-gutierrez-uvalde-police/ )

Roy Guerrero, a Uvalde pediatrician who did his best to save the lives of those shot on May 24th of this year, testified that the kids at Robb Elementary like Faith’s sister Tess weren’t helpless victims. But they were powerless against a man with a weapon that had the power to blast massive holes through their bodies, rendering them unrecognizable but for the shoes that they were wearing. They were also powerless against lawmakers who fail to act.

“My oath as a doctor means that I signed up to save lives. I do my job. I guess it turns out that I am here to plead. To beg. To please, please do yours.”

That comment was aimed at the legislators before him. Certainly, the chair of the committee, Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and other Democrats didn’t need more convincing. They are on board to take common sense gun safety steps like raising the minimum age of purchase. But Republicans and their witnesses are still focused on “solutions” like bringing back the “paddle and prayer” to public schools.

But that’s not the whole story. Because, while we can take satisfaction in knowing that “our side” wants to do the right thing and that the other side, led by the bright lights of the GOP like Louie Gohmert, are willing to accept the sacrifice of 10-year old children in order to maintain nearly unlimited access to firearms for those who should never be in possession of one, that doesn’t really get us anywhere.

What the families in Uvalde deserve, what your family and families across this country deserve, is change. And that’s on all of us. Continuing to push our federal and state legislators to do the right thing, regardless of who is in the majority and what the odds are, is the task before us.

The Uvalde families have lost their loved ones and aren’t getting them back. And yet they’re out there, facing down members of Congress, reliving the most painful moment of their lives, pushing against whatever the odds are in the hopes that they can help spare some other family the suffering that they’ve experienced.

That should compel each of us to think about what we are willing to do.

As the Texas Legislature convenes next month, I hope that I can work with you to follow the lead of Faith Mata and families of Uvalde to make sure that we do all that we can, whatever the odds, to make Texas a safer place for our kids, their teachers and our families.

Beto